"Creating to Teach, Entertain and Learn"

Sean Francis

"Creating to Teach, Entertain and Learn"

1

The Desert Eagle pistol in my left hand bucked hard as it fired its heavy .44 Magnum bullet. Metal crashed into the soft rotting bone of the reanimated woman's head and she rocked back and to the ground. I saw that the round actually pierced through her head and entered the zombie man behind her. There was no time to be surprised by that. We had to get out of this Victorian manor as soon as possible and we were quickly being surrounded by the living dead.

"Damn necromancer!" I growled as I fired another round behind me. The missing sound of bone crunching told me that I had missed my wildly aimed shot.

Yet, a large blast of fire followed it seconds later and I could hear flammable flesh catch ablaze. Soft cries could be heard from decaying throats but they were quickly drowned out by the shuffling of feet and our pounding hearts. Well, mine since I was sure I could not hear his.

"This was a trap from the beginning." The man next to me huffed out.

His trench coat billowed with the wind he was creating by running. A white tee shirt covered his rather impressive torso and dark blue jeans fell over his lean legs. Long black hair mimicked his coat and his rounded face was drenched in sweat. I was not surprised. I was not a wizard, yet even I could feel the horrible oozing power of the black slab of obsidian he held crooked in one arm. To him it must have been something out of Hell itself. Power beyond belief.

I heard sound from our left and raised the Desert Eagle, which I had named Alison, and opened fire. Chunks of skin, bone and rotten gore ripped from the zombie as round after round exploded.

After three shots, though, I heard the click click of an empty magazine. Cursing, I released the empty rectangular tube inside of a holder I kept on my belt and then slammed the empty handle of the gun into a fresh magazine just below the first. To make sure it was in tight I hit the butt of the gun into my leg and felt the magazine secure itself. I then used a protrusion of the holster to slide the bolt back.

During this time, though, a dead creature snuck up to our right and pure reaction saved us both. I flashed my warhammer up and felt it sink into the zombie's head with a squishy sound. That would have disgusted me if I had not been traveling with Landon for the past four years.

"But I don't understand." I panted, "Our names are on that thing already. If he had not specified a time, we would be laying in the middle of that vault without being the wiser."

A chill raced up my spine as the memory of seeing our names on the slab. It was barely perceptible as the user of the slab had to use his own blood to activate the object but Landon helped me see it. Our names were among the hundreds that had died recently. Most of the names did not have anything else with them which meant that they would die immediately yet we were one of the few names that actually had a specific time. We were the only ones with a date as well.

Landon spun around and raised his free hand. Spikes of wood rose from the oak flooring and spitted most of the undead in the hallway behind us. The rest of them were slowed while trying to get around the columns so we had some time that we would not get molested.

"You are assuming that he is just going straight for his goal of killing us." Landon said.

"What do you mean?"

"You missed the fact that he left the slab here for us in the first place. Why would he?"

I thought about it as we rounded the corner to the front door of the manor, "I don't know."

"Because he is just playing with us!" Anger tinted his voice. I felt like inching away from him as I knew what he was like when he was pissed off. My garage took the brunt of his rages.

"Playing with us? So, he is just trying to have fun?"

"Yes!" He growled, "He is probably watching us right now and laughing his fucking head off."

As if to prove that he was angry, he sent a wall of earth down the hall behind him. It was not completely useless though, as he took out another horde of undead that was behind us. Yet if he kept this up, we would have the manor fall on us right at the front door.

"Just focus on getting out for now." I said, "We can worry about him when we make sure we are safe."

He snarled but nodded. I could see him physically restrain his magic and I nearly sighed in relief. Landon could be really scary when he was angry.

We arrived at the door and readied ourselves to burst through the door assuming it was still unlocked. However, we felt like complete idiots as we slammed our noses against the sturdy oak. Well, I know I did. But the scowl on Landon's face gave me the idea that he did too.

"Back me up!" He yelled.

I stepped away from the door and aimed Alison down the hall. Zombies slid toward us and their collective voices moaned in hunger. Alison barked out in annoyance and two zombies fell with sections of their heads removed violently. This happened four more times before they were right on us.

The first zombie to reach out toward me was met with the top of my warhammer Betsy. Its head crunched with the force of the massive weapon. I then swung it to the right and felt the resistance of two more zombie bodies.

Something surprisingly sharp sunk into my thigh. I turned my head to find a zombie clawing at my leg and getting ready to bite down. Growling, I cracked the butt of Alison over its head to stun it then followed the blow up with Betsy. The floor shook a bit under her weight and I pulled it up in a backswing to slam into another creature's torso.

I felt a blunt object hit my torso and I stumbled back. The hesitation allowed for two zombies to pull me to the ground. I grunted as my back hit the floor and looked up to see zombies crawling over me with mouths wide open.

Before they could start taking nibbles of me, though, a great explosion knocked them all back. Sunlight poured into the hall and the zombies immediately started skirting away. Landon's hand gripped the back of my leather jacket and hauled me to my feet. We ran outside, knowing that the zombies would not follow us, and headed for Travis.

He was waiting for us next to the path up to the manor. His metal shell was polished and the tires recently washed. Light reflected off of him and it was great to see that he was not tampered with. Our helmets were on both seats and I rushed to put mine on. I barely waited for Landon to get settled on his seat before kickstarting Travis and pulled out onto the road.